Ok, so once you start homeschooling, even though you may have great intentions of blogging, for me it just doesn`t happen. So what`s been happening? Hopefully something that resembles success. We have had one report card and one is approaching. All the kids did great, which was a huge relief. You really don't realize what a reflection this is on you as a teacher/parent until you go through it.
My favourites of the year:
Apologia Science: Land Animals of the 6th Day. It doesn't get better than this. I'm amazed every time I read this book at the Presence of God in the text. Science and God really do go together despite what the world would have us believe.
Outlooks: New Beginnings: This is Kate and Joshua's grade 4 Socials Studies. The convenience of this is the biggest draw for me. All learning outcomes in one book. Thanks to Sarah for lending it to us!
Spelling Workout: The kids LOVE this spelling program. Kaitlin who struggles with spelling has really excelled using this curriculum. She has gotten an A on nearly every test and no lower than a B.
Cricket in Times Square Novel study: This was an hilarious book that Kate and Josh didn't only enjoy but I did too. There are some great free novel study downloads online. Looking forward to our next novel: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and yes I was able to find another great free download for the study.
Things I've learned, things I've made:
So I'm not going to list the countless things I've learned because I am seriously learning new things daily. I love it. What I'm going to talk about are things I've learned about the kids. Joshua, despite my loving Apologia, does not so I think next year we will do a different curriculum that takes a different approach. Another thing I've learned about Joshua is he can actually do art well. I think he does better at home with this because time isn't such an issue. I've been really amazed at some of the artwork he has done! Aliyah and Ally: LOVE WORKBOOKS. I am shocked and surprised to say they do not like to color, cut, paste ect too much during school. Speaking of workbooks I recently made a diy workbook station. Recently I've read about workboxes on other homeschooling sites. This is basically having a set of drawers one with each workbook and a simple schedule the student can follow and do independently. Independence is something I strive for in our classroom since there are 4 of them and only 1 of me. So I took a loose approach to this idea and created something similar. For each girl I took an old crib rail. I leaned it against the wall by their desks so the bars are horizontal. I then stapled on folders to make pockets in which their workbooks go in. I have a time slot on our schedule (did I mention our schedule has changed a zillion times!?) for the girls to do their workbooks. They are allowed to choose in any order they want. Wow, have they loved this. They are so happy and proud that they can choose which book to do, take it out of the folder and put it back in. Yes I still help them (alot) but they really love the independence this gives them and I love to see how proud it makes them feel of themselves. If I could I'd share pictures of my workbook station but my sd card isn't working right now.
